The Washington Panthers will square off against the Normal West Wildcats at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Washington is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Tuesday. Their pitchers stepped up to hand Bloomington a 16-0 shutout. The Panthers might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won 13 contests by eight runs or more this season.
Meanwhile, Normal West had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 9 runs) and they went ahead and made it three on Thursday. They were the clear victors by a 10-0 margin over the Tigers.
Kate McGowan tossed a big game, not allowing a single earned run and allowing only two hits while striking out 13 over five innings pitched. With that strong performance, she is now averaging an impressive 5.2 strikeouts per game.
On the hitting side, Rylee Hollings was a standout: she got on base in all three of her plate appearances with one triple, one run, and one RBI. That triple marked the first that she has hit this season. Eva Bankston was another key player, going a perfect 3-for-3 with two stolen bases, one run, and one RBI.
Normal West always had someone on base and finished the game having posted an OBP of .519. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Urbana only posted an OBP of .125.
Washington's win bumped their record up to 23-8. As for Normal West, they now have a winning record of 14-13.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
